Cigar or cigarette package.



C. C. DULA.

CIGAH OR CIGARETTE PACKAGE.

APPLICATION 'FILED APR.23.1917.

Patented. Jan. 15, 1918 @@MLM W@ barren srarns rastrear cranica CALEB C. '.DULA, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CIGAR OR. CIGARETTE PACKAGE.

Appnanon mea april 23, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CALEB C. DULA, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cigar or Cigarette Packages, of which the following is a specilication.

This invention relates to improvements in cigar or cigarette packages.

Packages of cigarettes and little cigars which are of more or less uniform cross-sectional coniguration throughout their length have been a commercial tobacco product i'orl a number of years, the little cigars and cigarettes being more or less similar in the character of filler, but differing in the wrapper, the cigarettes having a paper wrapper while the cigars have a tobacco wrapper, the latter being somewhat frail and easily damaged. These packages have been marketed at a low price and have become well established in the trade. Owing to the character of the iiller and wrapper', the cigar or cigarette is not only liable to damage through breaking of the wrapper, while in the box or container, but in addition, shaking of the container, or more or less free movements of the contents in the container, tends to bring about a sifting of the liller from the wrapper, thus decreasing the value of the cigar or cigarette for smoking purposes.

For purposes oit' preventing these effects while the packages remain unbroken, it has been the general practice of the manufacturers to employ containers which will receive a predetermined number of the cigars or cigarettes and hold them in positions where relative movements are relatively small and hence become ineective to produce damage.

This is generally done by packing the cigars or cigarettes in contact with each other and with more or less contact with the walls of the container, in such form as to substantially eliminate the possibility of any material movements of individual cigars or cigarettes taking place within the container. Obviously, after the package has been broken and several of the cigars or cigarettes removed, this position-maintaining effeet is broken and more or less movement may take place.

in producing packages of this type, containers of uniiorxn and standard size have been provided, and machinery for packing, etc. has been developed based on these stand- Spectcaton of Letters Patent.

Patented JT an.. i5, imite Serial No. 163,988.

ard sizes of containers. Investments covering the machines for producing containers of the standard size and of machines for packing, have reached a considerable amount, so that a change in the size and character' o1 the container will necessarily involve comparatively large costs and more or less change in manufacturing conditions.

Various attempts have been made to overcome the shifting of container contents when one or more of the cigars or cigarettes have been removed, thus continuing the integrity of the cigars or cigarettes, provided by the manufacturer in completing the package, after the package has been broken and one or more of the cigars or cigarettes removed.

This has generally been done by forming more or less individual compartments within which the cigars or cigarettes are placed, so that each is sustained individually instead of by reason of the contact of one cigar or oiga 1ette with anotherthe form of protection employed by the manufacturer. While such attempts might form more or less satisfactory solutions of this problem, these solutions have had practically no commercial value for the reason that the use of such devices practically requires a change in the size of the container in order to introduce the additional element or elements which are required to overcome the diiiiculty. Either a change in the size of the container or a change in the size of the cigars or cigarettes to permit of the use of such compartment-forming element or elements, becomes a matter of large expense owing to the necessity of changing the standard of container or of cigar or cigarette, and providing machinery ior meeting the changed conditions. `Since these packages are marketed at a low selling price and with a small margin oi:l prolit, the cost ot' the necessary changes in prior machines is ol considerable importance.

ln addition, the general form of the compartment-forming elements is such as to make these elements in themselves a material cost factor in the manufacture of packages, aside from the more or less diliculty in packing the cigars or cigarettes within the container, due to the necessity for handling the cigars or cigarettes without damage, these all being factors in the cost of production of packages wherein the margin of profit even under the present form of package is very small.

The present invention is designed to meet these general conditions by retaining the present standards of container and cigar or Cigarettes, and at the same time employ a simple and inexpensive element or elements insertible within the container without materially affecting the former conditions and yet produce an individual support for .the cigars or cigarettes suflicient to practically prevent the shifting movements ofthe cigars or cigarettes excepting when done intentionally. rThis result is obtained by the use of a removable liner or lining element formed of relatively thin paper, properly creased, and which is sufficiently thin to be received in the present standard containers. The paper is relatively inexpensive and since the machines, etc., heretofore employed require no changes whatever to permit the use of such liner or lining element, the addition of the liner or lining element can be l made with practically no loss of profit.

To these and other ends, therefore, the nature of which will be readilyV understood as the invention is hereinafter fully disclosed, said invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

ln the accompanying drawings in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts in each of the views,

Figure l is a perspective view, partlyV in section, showing one type of a common form of container, in which a liner or lining` element is mounted, the thickness of the latter being shown greatly exaggerated.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken longitudinally of a cigar in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view, with parts A broken away, showing the invention applied to a container of a different type, the thickness of the liner also being greatly exaggerated.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view taken through a different form of container in which the cigars or cigarettes are arranged in parallel rows, the liner or lining element being of a slightly diii'crent form.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the liner or lining element employed in connection with the structure of Fig. 4.

The container of Figs. l and 2 is of the metal type, as for instance such as is employed for packaging little cigars. The package retails at a low price and the wrapper of the little cigars is frail and easily damaged. Owing to the necessity for low cost of manufacture, the cigars are made rapidly and may vary cross-sectionally due to the manner of manufacturing. The protection heretofore afforded is by forming the container of a width which will receive the cigars when the latter are in contact with each other, any slight irregularities not materially affecting the positioning of the cigars and their maintenance in such position while the container is filled with the cigars. Vhile, therefore, the contents remain intact, damage to the cigars is reduced to a minimum so long as the container is un- `one form 'of liner or lining element which may be employed in connection with this type of container. In Figs. l and 2, the thickness of this liner orlining element l2 is greatly exaggerated, the liner being formed of a relatively thin and light-weight paper. The liner is shown as provided with parallel creases l2a between which the sheet is concave in transverse section, thusforming a seat for the cigar sufficient to tend to maintain the cigars parallel and yet permit surface contact of one cigar with another, the thin material permitting the formation of a relatively sharp crease o-r ridge edge which extends into the natural space formed by the receding surfaces of the adjacent cigars-'- extending into juxtaposition -to the line of contact of adjacent cigars-the depressions conforming more or less to the configuration of the cigars contained therein and leading from the line of contact without tend-ing to force the cigars out of such contact, thus producing a depth to the depressions such as will tend to maintain the cigars in the depressions. As will be seen, atransverse section through the liner presents these sharp ridges with a materially different configuration than is provided by either an element having a transverse section of sinuous form or a structure in which the ridge is rounded or produced by a double thickness of the element. As a result, the liner not only provides an efficient position-maintaining element without requiring change in .manufacture of the container or contents, but in addition, the particular ridge formation is such that should a cigar become canted from the desired position and the lid be closed, the wrapper of the cigar will not be damaged, due to the fact that the ridge portions" over which the cigar may extend can yield sufficiently to such pressure as to prevent damage to the cigar. This yielding action will not, however, materially damage thc liner, since the parallel creasing with a comparatively sharp edge will tend to restore .50 the general result being,

1,253,219 est the ridge to its normal configuration when the lid is again opened andthe cigar shifted to proper position.

As shown in Fig. 2, the liner preferably is of less length longitudinally of the cigar than the length of the interior of the container, although it will be obvious that the liner may be equal in length to such length of the container. The shorter length will provide thenecessary protection and at the same time decrease the size of the liner sheet and at the same time is more readily positioned since there is no necessity for accurately fitting the interior of the container,

these being factors which would tend to increase the cost.

ln Fig. 3 l have shown the invention as applied to a container of different type, this being more in the nature of a slide case for cigarettes with paper wrappers, a wellknown type of container, the case being indcated at 13 and the slide at 14. The showing of this view will indicate one way in which the liner may be applied, it being understood that if desired a liner may be provided on vboth sides of the row of cigarettes, although this is not essential.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a container in which the cigars or cigarettes are shown in two parallel rows of five each. In this form,

the liner or lining element is positioned between the two rows and preferably, although not absolutely essential, made of a single strip doubled upon itself, approximately at its center, with the connecting portion shaped to more or less fit the interior of the case. If desired, the opposite end may be arranged to fit the interior of the case as shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 5 is a detail view indieating the general arrangement of the liner of Fig. 4.

In each of these views, it will be understood, that the thickness of the liner is shown greatly exaggerated, any attempt to show the thickness of paper employed tending to lead to confusion.,

As will be seen, the general arrangement is such as to require no change in standard or size of container or of cigar or cigarette,

in addition to the advantage provided by practically maintaining the cigars or cigarettes in parallel relation, that the cigars or cigarettes will be more lirmly packed in position and thus less likely to be damaged while the package is unbroken.

As will be understood, the ability to employ a position-maintaining element with but slight cost and without necessitating any change in the manufacturing facilities of the cigars or cigarettes is of positive advantage, since it permits of continuing the protection heretofore had by the manufacturer in the unbroken package and thus decreases liabil- `ity of damage to the contents after the package has been broken and is in the hands of the user, thus making it possible to market the packages at the prices heretofore charged and under prior standards.

While l have herein shown and described 1.10 various ways in which the invention may be employed, it will be understood that it is applicable for use in other connections and uses, as well as in changed relation relative `to the container contents and container, and

,I desire to be understood as reserving the right to use the iv vention in such other connections and also in such other form as may be required or desired to meet the exigencies of such use, in so far as the same may fall Se within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, is

1. In a cigar or cigarette package, the 65 combination with a container, and the contained cigars or cigarettes positioned in contact with each other and in parallelism, of a liner or lining element formed of thin paper having spaced lparallel ridges defining therebetween article-receiving depressions, said ridges extending into natural spaces formed between adjacent contacting articles to normally maintain the individual positions of the articles while permitting facial Contact between adjacent articles.

2. In a cigar or cigarette package, the combination with a container, and the contained cigars or cigarettes positioned in contact with each other and in parallelism, of a liner or lining element formed of thin paper having spaced parallel ridges defining therebetween article-receiving depressions, adjacent depressions substantially conforming to the contour of article faces in contact therewith, and having the interposed ridge formed with a relatively sharp edge portion extending into juxtaposition to the line of contact of such adjacent articles, whereby the articles will be normally maintained in lll@ their individual positions while permitting' facial Contact between adjacent articles.

3. In a cigar or cigarette package, the combination with a container, and the contained cigars or cigarettes positioned in contact with each other and in parallelism, of a liner or lining element formed of thin paper having spaced parallel ridges defining therebetween article-receiving depressions, adjacent depressions substantially conforming to the contour of article faces in contact therewith, the contour of the depressions reaching to the ridge line to produce ay relatively sharp edge extending into juxtaposition to the line of contact of such adjacent articles, the depressions diverging from such edge, whereby ridges may yield in the presence of a canted article to prevent damage to the article, relief of pressure permitting the ridges to return to normal configuration. 13e

4. In -a cigar or lCigarette package, "the combination with a container, and thelcon? than `the length of the article and formed of l thin paper having spaced parallel ridges defining there/between article-'receiving depressions, s'aid ridges Vextending into natu'ral spaces formed ybetween adjacent 'contacting 10A articles to normally maintain Afthe lincliwfidual positions of the articles 'While 'permitting facial Contact between adjacent articles.

In testimony whereof I Ahave hereunto set my hand.

CALEB C. DULA.

' VLlopies .of this patent may 4be 'obtained for 've `eents eaeh, hyfaddrssilng-ft'he Commissioner 'oflafe'n-ts,

Washingtonf'l). C. 

